Swine producers, feed suppliers asked to exercise caution with feed
Staff Writer
Farms.com
The Swine Health Information Centre is encouraging pork producers to address feed safety with their suppliers.
As the threat continues for the spread of African Swine Fever (ASF) in China, North American health officials give their full attention to the danger of the viral infection.
ASF could enter North America in several ways, including through feed ingredients, said Dr. Paul Sundberg, executive director of the Swine Health Information Centre, in a Farmscape
release today. Producers should talk with their feed suppliers about the importance of feed safety, he advised.
Farmers can reference a document on SwineHealth.org to learn the questions they can ask their feed suppliers, Sundberg said. The American Feed Industry Association, the National Grain and Feed Association, the University of Minnesota and Kansas State University developed and reviewed the questions.
“We want to start that conversation between the producers and the feed suppliers about feed safety,” he said to Farmscape.
The document is “…a great example of the feed industry coming together in collaboration with the pork industry to try to help both out and make sure that we're doing the best that we can do for the safety of our animals,” Sundberg noted.
ASF is not a human food safety issue, he said.
Farms.com has reached out to the National Pork Producers Council for comment.
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